Erskine Caldwell News

Note: some links on this page will take you out of the Erskine Caldwell Website.Use the BACK button on your browser to return.

January, 2006

READING ERSKINE CALDWELL: NEW ESSAYS EDITED BY ROBERT L. MCDONALD
From the introduction: "if he and his books could get a fair hearing in the court of Literary Reputation, he would emerge as the important writer that he was and remains".
Since the early 1990s alone, there have been nearly 25 doctoral dissertations in which Caldwell's work is considered. This book of 12 essays by Caldwell scholars is intended to carry forward a reconsideration of Caldwell's legacy. It also includes an extensive bibliography of recent scholarship on Caldwell.

December, 2003

HE LOVED THE SOUTH BUT PAINTED ITS EVILS IN WORDS
December 17: New York Times. An article by Douglas Brinkley reflects on the Caldwell legacy. "Three of his short stories - - "Candy-Man Beechum," "Savannah River Payday" and "Kneel to the Rising Sun" - - are now considered civil rights era classics. Another title that is faring well with Caldwell scholars is In Search of Bisco (1965), a scathing nonfiction journey into the segregationist south of the George Wallace era." Douglas G. Brinkley currently serves as director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies and is a professor of history at the University of New Orleans.

RETURNING TOBACCO ROAD TO PLACE OF RESPECTABILITY
December 14: Atlanta Journal-Constitution. An article by Cameron McWhirter explores "perhaps the greatest forgotten writer ever to come out of Georgia's loblolly pine scrub".

CALDWELL CENTENNIAL: SCHOLARS REFLECT ON CALDWELL'S LEGACY
December 17, 2003 marks the 100th anniversary of Erskine Caldwell's birth. On December 14, 2003, The Erskine Caldwell Birthplace and Museum held a panel discussion which included Caldwell scholars Edwin Arnold, Sylvia Jenkins Cook, Robert McDonald, and Wayne Mixon. In a Times-Heraldarticle, W. Winston Skinner highlights comments made at the event.

April, 2000

ERSKINE CALDWELL INDUCTED INTO GEORGIA WRITERS HALL OF FAME
Erskine Caldwell was one of twelve authors inducted as Charter Members into the University of Georgia Writers Hall of Fame. Two new writers will be inducted in April of each year.

ERSKINE CALDWELL: SELECTED LETTERS, 1929-1955 EDITED BY ROBERT L. MCDONALD
Professor McDonald's commentary, along with the letters themselves, provides an illuminating look at the most important years of Caldwell's writing life. McDonald is also the editor of The Critical Response to Erskine Caldwell (1997).

More news and recent articles are available at The Erskine Caldwell Birthplace and Museum Website.